Set Up A Home Wi-fi Network To Be Tireless With Wireless

If you have a broadband Internet connection and more than one computer at home, you might have thought about setting up a home network.

You'll certainly have company: The latest Nielsen/^]NetRatings report found more than 49 million people, or 38 percent of all home Internet users, were connected via broadband in November.

Many broadband households have multiple computers. Cable or DSL modems, with their high-speed delivery and always-on service, give those PCs a chance to share that Internet connection.

That's one reason why wireless, or Wi-Fi, networking products have become such hot sellers. By using radio signals, they eliminate the biggest and most expensive obstacle to creating a traditional network in the home -- running cables from one room to another. And they're surprisingly easy to set up.

Wi-Fi, by the way, is the trade name for wireless networking equipment that conforms to an industry transmission standard known as 802.11b. Operating at a maximum range of 100 feet, Wi-Fi networks are theoretically available to any computer with a compatible wireless networking adapter. They're not as fast as wired networks, but plenty fast enough for Web surfing and most other chores.

That's why wireless access points -- known as "HotSpots" -- are showing up in airports, hotels, coffee shops, bookstores and other public places where laptop-computer users who crave Internet access are likely to show up. But Wi-Fi is also making its way to homes, which might have a couple desktop PCs and maybe a laptop or two, along with people who want to use them in different rooms.

So how do you set up a wireless network?

Let's say you're in a three-computer household -- the new PC that you bought for Christmas, the old PC that the kids inherited when you bought the new one and the laptop that Mom totes to work. You'll need three pieces of equipment -- a wireless router and wireless network adapters for two of the PCs. The key is the router, a gadget that connects one network with another -- in this case, your home network with your Internet service provider's. The router connects to your cable or DSL modem and serves as a "front man" for all your PCs. To the Internet, it looks as if you have a single computer.

In addition to managing Internet traffic, routers designed for home use are hubs, or switches, allowing the computers in your home to communicate with each other. In essence, they create the home network.

Standard routers designed for home or small-office use typically have four jacks, allowing four computers to "plug in" using network cables. A wireless router adds a radio transceiver to the mix. To add a computer to a wireless network, you don't have to run a cable -- just install a wireless network adapter in the new PC. You can use that PC anywhere within range of the access point. Wireless routers cost $80 to $200, depending on speed.

In our hypothetical household, we'll connect the fancy new Christmas PC to the router with a cable, then connect the router to the cable modem. Most routers can be set up using a Web browser in about 10 minutes.

Next, we'll install a wireless adapter in Mom's laptop. Some new notebook computers have built-in Wi-Fi adapters, but hers doesn't, so we'll use a wireless "Cardbus" adapter, about the size of a credit card, that plugs into the PC card slot on the side of the machine. They run $50 to $80.

For the kids' PC, we can choose an internal wireless adapter, which plugs into an expansion slot (and requires opening the case), or an external adapter -- a Wi-Fi radio that connects to one of the computer's USB ports. USB adapters work fine with laptops, too.

To get the wireless network adapters working, we'll have to install driver software and run through a setup routine to make the computers recognize the hardware. The instructions with most of the adapters that I've tried are pretty clear.

The Windows operating system also makes it relatively easy to set up and add machines to a home network, though it's still not as easy as it should be.

Like everything else in the business, wireless networking is changing. Equipment that meets the original Wi-Fi standard (802.11b) can communicate at speeds up to 11 megabits per second. That's a lot faster than most broadband Internet providers pump data into your home but not really fast enough for the latest craze -- streaming music or video from one computer on your network to another.

So the industry's developed a new generation of equipment that operates under a standard called 802.11g, which provides a maximum speed of 54 megabits per second. The good news is that "b" equipment will work on a "g" network, albeit at lower speed, so you can mix and match. The bad news is that mixing the two tends to degrade the performance of the faster "g" equipment. So if you're setting up from scratch and want higher speeds, buy all "g" equipment. Ignore equipment rated 802.11a, which is primarily designed for business use.

Two more pieces of advice: First, buy a router and network adapters from the same manufacturer. Although all Wi-Fi equipment is theoretically compatible, you'll have an easier time if everything comes from the same place.

Finally, look at the instruction manual and enable at least the most basic level of security, known in the trade as WEP. Because wireless networks are designed to accommodate all comers, anyone can jump on an unsecured network and possibly steal critical information. You don't need that intrusion into your life.